Hero
by luanee
Summary: Post-season 4. Something happened to Sawyer after he fell from the helicopter. How are Juliet and Daniel going to help him? Sawyer angst. COMPLETED.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a hard landing definitely, considering he had plunged from a moving helicopter into the ocean below feet first. He had not thought of diving head down like what professional divers do as after all, he ain't one. The plunge to the bottom seems forever, he was almost out of air when he finally felt himself rising instead of sinking.

When Sawyer finally emerged from the water, he was coughing and breathing harshly. He fought hard to stay afloat in the sea, using his exhausted limbs to tread water the best he could. It was water all around and he didn't have the faintest idea which way was the shore. And unlike the last time, he did not have any piece of floating pontoon to hold on to.

Gosh, was it a bad idea to volunteer to jump off the chopper just to offload it a little? He did not know why he was so heroic all of a sudden. He ain't no damn hero. Maybe the island did not want him to leave after all. After pausing to gain his breath a bit, he thought it would be easier to do the marathon swim without his shirt flopping around his torso, so he took it off and chucked the cumbersome piece of material into the sea. His water-logged boots felt heavy too, but he did not think he would be able to undo his shoelaces while bobbing in the middle of the ocean so he left them on.

Sawyer looked around the water and finally decided on a direction which he hoped was the island. Using strong and steady strokes, he slowly made his way forward, knowing he should not swim too fast else he would not have the stamina to last it to shore.

Suddenly he felt a sharp painful sting on his abdomen, near the right side. As he was not prepared for it, the shock of it made him lose his momentum and his entire body sank into the water, causing him to drink a few mouthfuls of the salty water unwillingly.

"Son-of-a-b" Sawyer managed to cough out when he finally had his head above the water again. "What the hell is that?" He saw the shape of an eel-like thing swimming in the water away from him and hoped that it was not poisonous, but knowing his luck better, he was doubtful. He felt the site of the pain on his abdomen gingerly with his fingers and could make out a swell coming up.

"Guess I better make it to land fast" Sawyer thought to himself as he continued his swim before the interruption. The sting did not hurt so much now but as Sawyer swam, he could feel himself getting a little light-headed. "Couldn't be heat stroke" he thought, as he doggedly made his way forward.

However, the more he swam, the more light-headed he got. Just when he thought he would pass out and drown in the watery grave, he spotted land ahead. He stubbornly shook away the dark spots that were threatening to claim him and swam even harder, concentrating on each stroke as he moved ahead.

Finally his feet touched sand and he started to stumble onto the beach. He thought he saw a lone figure sitting about 100 meters away but he could not make out who it was in his current delirious state. The dark spots in front of his eyes were getting more and more and when they merged to a single mass, the last thing Sawyer thought before falling unconscious into the wet sand was who the hell was that.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a hard landing, definitely, considering he had plunged 500 feet down from a moving helicopter into the dark ocean feet first

Chapter 2

Juliet was sitting alone on the beach drinking a bottle of Dharma rum. She watched the column of black smoke in the distance sadly, wondering if anyone on the freighter survived. Suddenly she saw a figure stumbling from the sea onto the beach. It looked like someone drunkened who couldn't walk in a straight line. Then it fell onto the sand with a loud splash.

She dropped the bottle and hurriedly ran towards the fallen figure. It was James Ford aka Sawyer, she realized as she got nearer. The shirtless man was lying on the sand half submerged in the water with his eyes closed. Juliet kneeled down next to him. She patted his face gently to try rouse him.

"Hey James! James!" Juliet shouted at him. She felt his brow and it felt hot to the touch. Seeing no visible injuries on him, she thought he probably fainted from exhaustion, given that he had probably swam a long way.

Sawyer opened his eyes slowly and stared up into the sky. It took a while before he realized that he was lying on the beach. He turned slightly and saw a worried Juliet staring at him.

"Can you stand?" Juliet asked him, holding his elbow.

"Yeah I guess so." Sawyer replied in his southern drawl, astonished at his own weak voice. He took his elbow away from Juliet and pushed himself up. Once he was on his feet, however, he began to sway and would have fallen immediately if Juliet had not held him.

"Easy there" Juliet said, letting Sawyer hold on to her till his dizziness passed.

"I'm fine" Sawyer lied. In fact he doesn't feel fine at all. His head was throbbing mercilessly and he felt very cold. His legs felt like giving out any time but he still wanted to walk on his own. "Leave me alone" he said, before shaking Juliet's hands off and stumbled inland stubbornly.

Juliet gave a sigh. Men's pride. Nonetheless she just walked behind him, ready to catch him should he fall again.

But Sawyer didn't fall. He managed to make it to the treeline before suddenly a bright flash of white light appeared in the sky. Both he and Juliet stopped and looked around in confusion. Just then, a loud rumbling sound was heard from the jungle, followed by the ground shaking violently. A pillar of black smoke came snaking menacingly out of the trees towards where they were standing.

"Run!" Juliet shouted before grabbing Sawyer's hand and ran in the opposite direction.

A/N : Quite disappointed with the numbers of reviews I got in the previous chapter. Pls do review if you are reading! It really means a lot to the author!! (Btw, this is not a Suliet fic).


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Juliet and Sawyer ran towards the sea, hoping that the smoke monster thing would stay within the trees. After a while, it seemed that it had indeed stopped chasing them and they slowed down their pace.

With the adrenalin rush over, Sawyer suddenly felt his legs weakening and he collapsed heavily to his knees onto the sand beneath him. He was panting heavily and felt besides the pain in his head, now his stomach hurt too. He put a hand over it bent over in agony.

"James, are you alright?" Juliet asked in concern, kneeling down next to the ex-conman. She knew it was a redundant question. His usually tanned face now had a sick pallor to it, and he was obviously in pain, by the way he was crutching his stomach. He was also biting his lips in an effort not to cry out.

Looking up into the sky, Juliet saw that the flash of white light was no longer there. However it remained not a good idea to stay on the beach under the direct tropical sun, especially with Sawyer shirtless and in such a weakened state. The heat will fry him in no time. Not sure whether the 'smoke monster' was still lingering among the trees, Juliet decided to make her way towards the beach camp.

"Come on, let's go towards the tent, you'll feel better under the shade" Juliet told Sawyer, putting her hands under his elbow trying to get him onto his feet. Sawyer made an effort to stand up when he felt her pulling him, but the moment he tried to straighten his body, the pain in his stomach became so acute, like multiple knives stabbing into him at the same time. He groaned painfully before finally lost his fight with consciousness and fell back heavily onto the sand.

"James!" Juliet sighed in exasperation when she saw his closed eyes. Instead of waiting for him to come round, she decided to bring him over to the beach camp by herself. Putting her hands underneath his armpit, she managed to drag him slowly across the sand, pausing to rest a few times in between before she finally reached the deserted beach camp. There was no one there now. "I must remind you to lose some weight when you wake up later," Juliet made a mental note to herself, panting heavily and looking at the still-out-cold man lying on the sand.

"Hey!" a voice startled her and Juliet was both surprised and relieved when she looked up and saw Daniel Faraday walking across the beach towards her, his whole body dripping wet.

"Hey Daniel! Where's the raft? Why are you all alone?" Juliet greeted back, hurrying out to meet him.

"I don't know…. saw this white light appear in the sky… thought I was blinded…. then the raft capsized and I was in the sea….couldn't see the other people…." Daniel replied, trying to catch his breaths at the same time.

'It's ok," Juliet put a reassuring hand across his shoulder and gently lead him towards the beach camp. Daniel was surprised when he saw Sawyer lying there with his eyes closed.

"What happened? Wasn't he with the doc? I thought they had left…." Daniel stammered.

"Couldn't get any answers out of him yet. He appeared from the sea a short while ago just like you." Juliet replied. "There seemed to be something wrong with him." She left Daniel standing there and knelt down next to Sawyer and put her hand to his face, trying to figure out where he was hurt.

Sawyer's eyes opened suddenly, unfocused in confusion. He tried to sit up and Juliet immediately went over to help him.

"You feeling better?" Juliet asked in concern. Sawyer just looked at her briefly before nodding his head. "Where're Jack and the rest? Weren't you guys together? How did you end up in the sea?"

Sawyer paused for a while before replying. "The chopper was losing fuel, Captain said we needed to lose some weight…. so I decided to take a little dip!" He was getting back some of his cockiness and managed to sit up straighter.

"You mean you jumped from the helicopter? While it was flying high up in the air?" Daniel looked at him in surprise.

"Yeah, reckoned it be safer to jump than to crash, wouldn't it?" Sawyer replied before changing the subject abruptly. "Hey where are the rest? How come it's just Romeo and Juliet here?"

"Daniel managed to get most of them up to the freighter by a raft. But it got burned up." Juliet replied sadly in a soft voice.

"Burnt? What do you mean?" Sawyer asked. He managed to stand up by supporting one hand against a tree.

"See that column of black smoke there?" Juliet pointed out towards the sea. But there was no black smoke in sight. She searched the horizon puzzledly. "It was there earlier! I saw it burning, the whole ship!"

"Was that before the white light came?" asked Daniel.

"Yeah… you mean ?" Juliet looked at Daniel.

"I believed the island moved." Came the reply.

"The island what?" Sawyer asked incredulously.

"Moved." Daniel repeated simply.

"What the…." Sawyer started before a sudden pain hit him in the stomach again. He put one hand on his stomach and the other hand to the tree behind him, bending over in pain and breaking out in cold sweat.

"Is his appendix going to rupture like Jack?" asked Daniel with wide-opened eyes.

TBC…….

A/N: So sorry for the long delay, but the lack of reviews is really a big dampener when it comes to writing, serious….. Big thanks to all reviewers, especially to speckled girl who made me realize someone is still waiting to read my work! So do hit the button below if you are reading, even a simple line will spur me to write faster!


	4. Chapter 4

So sorry, I know it has been a long while but I am having a real serious writer's block. I vowed to myself that I shall never abandon a fic so this shall be my last chapter as I wanted to finish it before season 5 premiere to avoid any contradiction. The ending is kind of 'open' so I shall leave the rest up to your imagination. Please leave a review if you are reading, thanks!

Chapter 4

"Is his appendix going to rupture like Jack?" asked Daniel with wide-opened eyes.

"No Daniel, I checked that earlier, it was ok." replied Juliet.

Sawyer sighed in relief when he heard that. But it did not help to lessen the pain at all. Instead it attacked him anew until he could no longer remain standing and sank onto the ground next to the tree he was holding onto. He bit his lips in an effort not to cry out loud until they started to bleed.

"This doesn't look good…." Daniel said as he kneeled down next to Sawyer, wringing his fingers. "Hey what's that?" he pointed to a bright red swollen spot on Sawyer's abdomen, near the right side, about an inch in diameter.

Juliet kneeled down nex to Daniel and peered at the spot he pointed. "It wasn't there when I checked him earlier." She frowned.

"Son-of-a-b** fish bit me earlier in the sea….." Sawyer managed to say out between his gritted teeth., still crutching his stomach tightly. "Must be poi…" He couldn't finish the sentence as the pain became so bad that he collapsed sideways onto the sand.

Juliet gingerly touched the swollen spot. It looked like a sting or a bite to her, and a poisonous one from the pain Sawyer was in. There was nothing she could do now as all the medical supplies were in the hatch., unless she risked trekking through the jungle now with the smoke-monster at large.

Suddenly without warning, a gunshot rang through the air. Before either one of them could react, a group of armed men dressed in Dharma jumpsuits appeared before them, all with rifles directed at the trio.

One of the men stepped forward and stared at the three of them on the ground. "Get up!" he commanded, jerking his own rifle at them. Juliet and Daniel stood up gingerly and their hands were quickly brought behind their backs and bounded by the rest.

Sawyer was slower to comply as his stomach was still paining him greatly. Impatient, two of the men jerked him up by his arms and pulled him to a standing position. They then brought his arms to his back and bounded him similarly as Juliet and Daniel. Sawyer couldn't suppress a groan as his body started to protest against the rough treatment.

"Move it!" commanded the same guy who was apparently the leader of the group. Juliet and Daniel started to walk as instructed. But the moment the men who were holding Sawyer released their hold on him, Sawyer's knees buckled and he pitched forward, hitting hard onto the ground as he could not use his bounded hands to break the fall.

Irritated, the leader-guy strode over to Sawyer and kicked him hard in the ribs with his boots, causing the ex-con man to double up in agony. "What's the matter with him?" he shouted.

"He's running a fever and I believe he had been bitten by some poisonous sea-creature." Juliet said calmly. "And kicking him would not solve the problem." The leader-guy stared at Juliet for a moment before bringing his eyes down to Sawyer who was still lying on his side on the ground. His eyes were shut in obvious pain and it was apparent he was not capable of walking on his own any time soon.

"Get him up." The leader-guy said in a softer voice this time to his men and the two who bounded Sawyer earlier immediately pulled him up by his arms, one on each side supporting him. Together the Dharma-suited men led their prisoners towards the jungle.


End file.
